If you stopped by this blog by accident and live within driving distance of Cambridge in Southern Ontario, please consider joining us. We're a friendly little group of photographers at different levels of skills and interest. We all enjoy photography and the only thing we're serious about is having fun with our cameras and learning from each other. Check out the Flickr group page for some more of our images. (And those of you who took images and are part of the group - don't forget to share them on Flickr!)
My appologies to those in the group for the delay in posting the blog this month... it's been a busy month, what with the new house and all. But we're back - and there's still a little time before the next meeting!
4 Week Challenge
Our four week challenge is about encouraging us to reach further and expand our skills and creativity. Each four weeks, we have a new challenge and an opportunity to share our pictures with each other. The photos have to be new and shot within those four weeks. We encourage you to take as many as you like (it's a digital world) and pick a few of your best, then bring them to our group on a media stick. We will display them and give a quick review for the benefit of all.
The Last Challenge: Over Exposure
Our October challenge was to produce an image that was "over exposed". This gave a lot of space for interpretation and some of the images are quite nice.Tammy created a wonderfully stricking image by exposing for the foreground rather than for the sky, making the sky nicely over exposed and silhouetting her subject very nicely. This was taken at the Elora Gorge.
Brett used over exposure to capture this landscape shooting into the sun, he got an ethereal effect by using over exposure.
Bob braved the early morning fog to capture this image. By using just the right amount of over exposure, he was able to correctly expose the foreground and leave the trees in gradations of silhouette.
Gary took a different path and used the bright light of a window to create a "high key" type effect and blow out his subject to a large extent producing this angelic image... although some might say it was a little more extra terrestreal than angelic - either way, it's out of this world...Our Next Challenge: A Shot in the Dark
Now that we've mastered over exposure, what do you do when there is little to no light?
Under exposure is probably not a good idea in general. Blacks in a digital image tend to bring out the noise, and trying to manipulate them bring the noise out even more (yes, Bob, shooting in RAW does help a bit ;). But darkness can create a mood that is very ominous and foreboding and can enhance an image and help the viewer to focus on the subject of the image.
This month, we are challenged to create an image using large amounts of darkness. Use the darkness to create a mood. Look at some of the posters of vampires, or study how darkness is used in the Batman series of movies (the "Dark" knight) to see what I mean. The darkness might be used as a background with a lighter subject, or it may be used with a bright light behind a silhouette.
As always, be creative!
Mid-Way Shoot-Out:
Bring your lighting kit to Tammy's Video 99 store in Hespeler on November 29th at 2:00pm, and if you don't have one, don't worry, we'll share. We're going to take some time to shoot each other (with our cameras of course) in studio setups.
Next Regular Meeting: December 6th, 2009 - 6:30-8:30
We will meet as usual between 6:30-8:30pm at the Video 99 store in Hespeler - come in the front door and meet us out back in Tammy's Studio. See you there! Bring a friend and bring your photos on a memory stick or in print so we can all share.
